Urban Forestry

Trees are a source of beauty, shade, water conservation, and other environmental benefits, providing homes to wildlife and enhancing property values. Escondido has an Urban Forest of over 65,000 trees valued at over 200 million dollars that is recognized as one of the City's greatest natural resources.

Our community trees are cataloged in an ongoing data base that records their location, species, health, height, and diameter. Our inventory shows a wide variety of trees that includes both native and non-native species, bringing our city character. Sites are also identified for future planting possibility.

We encourage our Urban Forest to thrive as in-house crews perform inspections, do trimming and pruning, and respond to emergency services. We use contractors for a wide variety of services, including removal of larger trees that requires the use of a crane.

As trees flourish, they spread out and get comfortable. Maintaining sidewalks, streets, medians and right-of-ways in close proximity to them proves to be very challenging. If a tree becomes overly invasive it may require removal, which can be a long process. Choosing which variety of tree and where to place it is therefore an important decision.

When choosing the appropriate tree for a particular location, it helps to consider things like hardscape distances, climate conditions, soil type, organic matter, underground utilities, overhead power lines, and what kind of future tree maintenance will be required.

Keeping Escondido’s trees healthy starts in your own backyard. Keep all trees on your property trimmed back for fire safety and rake tree litter regularly, disposing in your greens bins for collection. Check out the links on this page to learn more and become a part of Escondido’s Urban Forest.